I'm a special case. need advise

[DreamSurf]

ok so i am trying to follow u guys and basically i need a bigger board with more volume right?
would this one be more realistic?

https://www.blue-tomato.com/nl-BE/produ ... US+Fashion

[DreamSurf]

weird tho cause according to some surfers i talked to the shortboard should be like the same height or one handpalm bigger. im confused

[jaffa1949]

There is a lot of bias in selling short boards, a lot of sales people will tell you it is only short boards that are high performance boards. This is nonsense particularly for beginners, the rider is th maker of performance.

Early lesson require wave catching ability,Mao length and volume are higher to help in that, when th rider becomes more skilled and catches waves easily and begins and succeeds in making good turn across the wave face both backhand and forehand then thoughts about different boards becomes an option.

There are highly skilled riders who can do airs and all the stuff you aspire to on boards of all lengths.
The choice is personal at that level.

Aerial surfing is the fulfilment of being able to link manoeuvres gaining speed and control to launch so a full set of surf skills is required!.

You admire Kelly and John John, view their comp at teahupou and Kelly'S double 10 point heat and you will see the full set of skills needed !

Just enjoy the learning and the space the surf gives, maybe get your wife interested,,saves a lot of grief if you are obsessed!
Teach your kids to surf, my three sons all learnt to surf. They are teaching heir kids to surf!

[DreamSurf]

There is a lot of bias in selling short boards, a lot of sales people will tell you it is only short boards that are high performance boards. This is nonsense particularly for beginners, the rider is th maker of performance.

Early lesson require wave catching ability,Mao length and volume are higher to help in that, when th rider becomes more skilled and catches waves easily and begins and succeeds in making good turn across the wave face both backhand and forehand then thoughts about different boards becomes an option.

There are highly skilled riders who can do airs and all the stuff you aspire to on boards of all lengths.
The choice is personal at that level.

Aerial surfing is the fulfilment of being able to link manoeuvres gaining speed and control to launch so a full set of surf skills is required!.

You admire Kelly and John John, view their comp at teahupou and Kelly'S double 10 point heat and you will see the full set of skills needed !

Just enjoy the learning and the space the surf gives, maybe get your wife interested,,saves a lot of grief if you are obsessed!
Teach your kids to surf, my three sons all learnt to surf. They are teaching heir kids to surf!

i envy you. better learn them to surf then learn them to game. the skateboard culture is full of weed smokers.(i was one to) i stopped in the middle of my sponsorship cause i noticed it didnt make me better. at the end i saw my OLD friends in the same couch outside while i was working and while i was being sponsored.

how is the surf culture like back then and now?

the way i see it jaffa is that i need a tall shortboard perhaps in the range of 6.2 40L catch some waves and struggle with it untill i master it. and then i can go 5.11 31.9L by time. its just a goal you know lets not dwell on it. also boards are very expensive and sometimes they just break faster then u expect. even on clear sea sometimes there is a rock underneath and it will shred your surfboard. i dont have experience but it doesnt take a genius to know that.

[Big H]

Trust me....I'm not trolling. I live here in Bali's bukit peninsula and see hundreds of wannabe short boarders on vacation every week; they can't buy a wave because they are in over their heads. I feel bad for them, and am also annoyed by them because they clog up the breaks. My advice is as much for me as for you if I can dissuade someone reading this from going too small too early, that is one less speed bump in the lineups.....

Bro....do yourself a favour....rent a board first. It will all become clear at that point. Until then it is all just talk; you're going to have to experience it to know the truth. Go stare in the mirror and ask yourself HOW you can have an opinion if you have NEVER tried surfing? Be real with yourself bro, try it then drop the ca$$$h on a board that will work for you, but have some personal experience to draw from before spending YOUR money.

As far as the weight thing, don't take it personal.....I wasn't being negative, just realistic. The lighter you are the smaller board will work for you AFTER learning the basics....I am heavily muscled and am 185cm and 87kg. I would bet that in surf shape you'll drop under 70kg....should be for your height unless you are a body builder. It's a good thing....you'll feel better and you won't need as much float. If you want to be as good as you aspire the amount of effort it will take will melt the kg's off anyway.....I read active surfing burns 500kcal per hour.

BTW, how many times a week do you plan to be in the water?

[Lebowski]

I'm not sure why you've made this thread. You're asking for advice. All the advice says to get a bigger board but still you're convinced that a 6'2 is what you need (that 6'2 at 40 litres will be a groveller by the way - not ideal as an all round board).

There are several very experienced surfers on this forum, as well as several surf instructors. I myself have given lessons to all kinds of people, including skateboarders, snowboarders and wakeboarders. None of them were any better than a 'regular' person at picking up surfing.

The 7'2 you suggest at the top of this page is reasonable. Not ideal, but workable.

[pmcaero]

based on your extensive skateboarding experience I definitely recommend a 9ft softtop board, it's what every pro skateboarder rides. Nothing else is c00l enough for sk8r boys and girls.

[Big H]

Keep the stoke...

[DreamSurf]

Keep the stoke...

for what a longboard is. it is beautiful the way they do it. i can understand if someone who is a shortboarder goes for a longboard sometimes. it has that chill impression. nuff talk man need to get my money for a board. thx man sorry if im annoying. like u said.

keep the stoke aaaaaaaaight

[DreamSurf]

based on your extensive skateboarding experience I definitely recommend a 9ft softtop board, it's what every pro skateboarder rides. Nothing else is c00l enough for sk8r boys and girls.

how about an 88 feet? and while we are at it lets get us some wood and make a boat out of it.

9 feet is really a lot. ill do it tho as a rental.

[icetime]

I'm a fast learner and it took me about 6 months to get where I am and all I can do is go down the line and do top turns with almost no spray, that puts in perspective the amount of time you'll need to learn to surf no matter your prior experience in skating, it won't help you at all when surfing, accept the fact you'll have to start like all of us on a longboard you rent out until you get a hang of surfing, forget the flashy shortboards and start like everyone else on this forum

[Big H]

Flashy longboard....

[oldmansurfer]

So you are sure you want a shortboard but haven't ever tried one yet? OK I think people watch these pro surfers and think I want to do that when in reality it takes years of hard work to get anywhere near that level of performance. So if you are planning on 20 plus hours of surfing a week for five to ten years to learn to surf like a pro then go for it. You are just fooling yourself if you think different. In fact all of those pro surfers started surfing at a young age and you will have it much worse then them at an older age. It's not impossible to learn to surf on a shortboard. Back when I learned that is how everyone did it. That was right at the beginning of the shortboard era. However prior to learning I bodysurfed and body boarded on waves bigger than most surfers will go on. I was familiar with the ocean and waves having grown up bodysurfing and diving and swimming in it. You are older this will present you more of a challenge. It seems that learning when you are younger is easier from a mind and body point of view even ignoring that younger people are more flexible and less prone to repetitive use injuries. There are charts that can help you pick a shortboard based on your weight and age and physical conditioning. Seriously I never knew there was a problem with learning to surf on a shortboard till I came to this forum. But you are older which is one strike against you and not familiar with the ocean which is two strikes against you. But it sounds like you have determination which is an absolute must for this to work. One way to approach this is to go rent a shortboard and give it a try. What you most likely will experience is hours of messing up and not riding a single wave. If you bought one this would go on for weeks if you went daily and longer if less often. If the prospect of doing that doesn't put you off then go get one. However if you take lessons they will give you a longboard and you will likely ride a wave on the very first day

[Big H]

OMS, how old were you when you started surfing and how big was your shortboard?

[oldmansurfer]

6'10" by 18" by 2.25" That was a beginners size shortboard. I was 6'2" and most guys surfed a board about 6 inches longer than they were tall. However there were none of these wide shortboards, 18 inches was wide back then. It's all different now.

[oldmansurfer]

Oh yeah and I was 18 years old. My parent gave me the board for my 18th birthday

[icetime]

6'10" by 18" by 2.25" That was a beginners size shortboard. I was 6'2" and most guys surfed a board about 6 inches longer than they were tall. However there were none of these wide shortboards, 18 inches was wide back then. It's all different now.

That sounds like a nightmare for a beginner, did it have a lot of volume in the center or what?

[oldmansurfer]

I was fit and used to riding a 4 foot by 18 inches by 0.75 inches plywood and fiberglass board prior to it so it seemed pretty big to me and had lots of flotation compared to what I was used to.

[Big H]

I would say that OMS qualified for "special case" status with his ocean experiences bodysurfing and papio boarding in big hawaiian surf.

[oldmansurfer]

It wasn't supposed to be easy back then, no leashes, not much people doing surf lessons, I didn't know anyone who took lessons still don't except for here on this forum. Those who had been longboarding started on longboards but those who hadn't went straight to the shortboard. Took me two weeks of trying every single day to where I could ride a wave down the line with small turns reasonably well. I had ridden a longboard surfboard 9 years earlier for 2 waves, (I was 9 years old.) Then I rode an in between board for a couple hours a year earlier. Then I rode a very shortboard for the time a 5'2" board that was very thick it was supposed to be a knee board but I rode it standing up for a couple hours. Then I tried with my birthday board after I got it for a couple days and gave up on it since it was very difficult but I broke my paipo board in two and it took me 2 weeks to make it so I asked my friends how to learn to surf and they all said "go as often as you can" and that was all the surf instruction I got. That was also all the surf instruction most guys got. I mean once in a while you are trying to do a turn repetitively and a friend will come up to you and say you need to bend your legs first or something like that and you try that. But I started riding overhead waves at 2 months along which was also the first time I surfed with others. It wasn't scary at all to me because I had been out in much larger surf prior bodysurfing and paipo boarding. But really I had no clue there was a problem with learning to surf on a shortboard. It was difficult but it was supposed to be difficult.